Real Estate Trends

Ultimate Guide to Closing Your First Real Estate Transaction

Ultimate Guide to Closing Your First Real Estate Transaction Closing your first real estate transaction is a big deal. It comes with a mix of excitement and nervousness. You want to close the deal, but you know a lot goes into the process. Once you have secured funding and made a purchase agreement, it is time to start the closing process. This post will cover some of the things you need to know about closing on your first real estate deal. Closing Your First Real Estate Transaction Open the Escrow Account An escrow…
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Top 10 Hottest Real Estate Markets in 2023 Part 2

Even with a bit of a slowdown in 2022, there are still hot real estate markets. This post is part two of 2023 hottest real estate markets. You can click here to see the five markets in part one. The NAR picked these markets as the ten with the most potential in 2023. Let’s look at the remaining five markets on the list. 2023 Hottest Real Estate Markets Hottest Real Estate Markets in South Carolina - Charleston-North Charleston, South Carolina Median home prices in Charleston are high at over $530,000 in November of 2022.…
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Top 10 Hottest Real Estate Markets in 2023 Part 1

It’s no secret that the national real estate market experienced a bit of a cooldown in 2022. According to a report from the NAR, sales slowed from 6.1 million in 2021 to 4.43 million in 2022. The report also looked at some of the hottest real estate markets in 2023. Because much of the national market has slowed, that does not mean there are no markets to watch. This two-part post will look at the hottest markets for 2023. The Hottest Real Estate Markets in 2023 Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, Georgia The Atlanta metro area…
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How to Calculate Your Profit in 2022 When Selling Your Rental Property

If your rental property investment goal is to reap a big profit when you sell, then understanding your potential taxes upfront is critical. Just knowing you'll pay a tax on any gain you earn and the general tax rate is not enough preparation. You need to look at capital gains, depreciation recapture, net investment income tax, and short versus long-term gain tax rates to get to your real net profit number. The details can be found in the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Publication 550, Section 4. For starters - if you sell a…
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Housing Affordability Drops As Home Prices Rise

Median home prices rose at least 10% in the fourth quarter of 2020,  significantly impacting housing affordability for many prospective homebuyers. Of the 499 counties surveyed in Attom Data Solutions’ Home Affordability Index, 275 (55%) experienced this increase in prices. By comparison, home prices were up 43% in the fourth quarter of 2019. Home prices for single-family homes have experienced steady increases over the past few quarters. According to the National Association of Realtors, in the penultimate quarter of 2020, the median price for an existing single-family home was $313,500. This was up…
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Digital Closing Helpful but Chinks Remain

Remote online notarization (RON) has been on a high since the pandemic hit the town. Digital closings have allowed the housing industry to operate in times of social distancing and lack of in-person contact. However, Kimberly Smathers, Snapdoc’s Head of Information Security and Compliance stated during National Mortgage News Digital Mortgage conference’s panel discussion that the growth in this new design could lead to resource-constrained new products. "Are there enough engineers to create the product?" she asked. "Is there a rigorous security process built into how that product is developed? I think that you…
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Nonbank Mortgage Firms Increase Hiring Rate

The payrolls of the nonbank mortgage bankers and brokers cumulatively increased by roughly 2% on the monthly chart and 9% on the yearly chart, divulges the latest report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. While the expectations were rather mute, given the traditionally lackluster buying numbers in fall, many nonbank mortgage houses are hiring at a decent rate, believing that it is the time to execute ambitious plans. For instance, Mr. Cooper proposes to hire 2,000 employees. AmeriSave Mortgage Corp. is looking for the same number of recruits. As early as in July, Freedom…
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More than Half U.S Properties Involved in Bidding Wars

Five times more U.S properties went into bidding wars in August, compared to the same month last year, says a Redfin data. Squeezed inventory has led to a hike in buyer demand which has seen as many as 54.5% properties undergoing a series of increasing price bids. In some of the metro areas, as many as 65% properties were involved in such wars.  “The market is on fire. There just isn't enough on the market to supply the huge demand for homes. A lot of military buyers are trying to take advantage of…
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While the Economy is Falling, Home Prices Keep Rising. Here’s why.

National Association of Realtor's (NAR) existing home sales report for April 2020 reported that the Median Sales Price rose a staggering 7.4% year-on-year. April's increase marks 98 straight months of year-on-year increase. Even a more recent data (for the week ending May 15, 2020) from Altos Research shows that the Median Sales Price is still increasing. This, when 38 million Americans have lost their jobs and the unemployment rate is at the highest levels since the Great Depression of 1933, mostly due to Covid-19 pandemic (see chart below). It seems that all the…
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Existing Home Sale Report for the Month of October

Existing-home sales in the Midwest and the South have registered an uptick for the month of October, says the National Association of Realtors’s (NAR) housing stat. Sales in the North and the West, on the other hand, have suffered a decline. All four regions have, however, sold more homes compared to the numbers they sold a year ago. Total existing-home sales (single-family homes, townhomes, co-ops, and condos) have come up to 5.46 million in October, a rise from September’s 5.38 million (calculations based on seasonally adjusted annual rate). This marks an increase of…
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